Interesting that Siefkes is going to have two jobs. He will be DC and ILB coach according to the announcement. Is that just to save a salary ? What purpose was it done that way ? Although I am not complaining. And will having the ILB job take away from his responsiblities of DC ? I do not have the inside track of coaching so I cannot speculate.

ld yes you are correct. This is a good group and we could have done worse and maybe even a lot worse. I hope Nash finds what he wants as I always thought he was a good guy and would someday be HC when MA left. I just hope he does not find a position with one of the other SoCon teams or any OOC team that we play - Gardner Webb or Tn Tech for instance.

I hear Nash is interested in the St Joe’s High job.Steifkes as DC/ILB Coach is nothing new.Wood was DC and S coach. Woody was DC/ILB Coach. Fuqua was DC/OLB Coach. Nothing new or unusual. Conklin will coach S and DBs. We will be fine. I am a little concerned over Steifkes inexperience and young age as DC but having Conklin as a backstop gives me comfort. I fully believe we are likely to see more schematic changes on D as opposed to the O although we will continue to play out of the 3-4. IMO our D underperformed this year....significantly. Maybe some guys were dinged up and suspensions didn’t help but we definitely didn’t play as well as last year. So maybe, just maybe (I realize this is blasphemy to some) that it is our D that needs changes and sprucing up rather than our O.Just sayin’...

Ruckus2 wrote: IMO our D underperformed this year....significantly. Maybe some guys were dinged up and suspensions didn’t help but we definitely didn’t play as well as last year. So maybe, just maybe (I realize this is blasphemy to some) that it is our D that needs changes and sprucing up rather than our O.Just sayin’...

Here's one thing I hope carries over from the 2017 defense--tackling in space. In all of my years watching Wofford football, with the possible exception of 2012, I don't recall a group of safeties, corners, and linebackers who did a better job of bringing down ball carriers in the open field. Bubble screens that used to be good for five to ten yards against us every time because of missed tackles resulted in one or two yards last season. Quite a few times, we even blew up bubble screens for negative yardage. Unheard of for us!

I agree with the assessment of the defense. It's been our strategy for years to slow the pace of the game on both sides of the ball (run it on offense, don't get beat on defense). The strategy was originally borne from the fact that we didn't have the athletes or depth of other teams.

If you've read my posts, you know I'm skeptical of this claim in general. On defense though, I think it's safe to say that we can recruit well and have elevated the talent of the players. One big indicator is the tackling in space mentioned above. The problem with running the zone coverage that we do is that it's vulnerable to the tight end (more than other offenses IMO) as well as those wheel routes we saw against NDSU.

Not switching it up in those situations sends the message that we don't have the confidence in our guys, whether that be capability or athleticism. It says "it's too big of a risk to have you in man coverage" or something like that. Twenty years ago, maybe that was the case, but I'm skeptical of that claim today, given the athleticism of the secondary.

I think Ayers's system (both offense and defense) was what we needed to put ourselves on the map, build some program recognition and prestige, but I don't think it's the kind that can take us farther than the quarterfinals nowadays. Though JMU and NDSU are a cut above everyone else, I don't know if our scheme would have beaten some or perhaps most of the quarterfinalists.

I think it's a lot more practical given our personnel to make changes in the defense than the offense.

I think our D was excellent this year; it saved our bacon more than once in close games. Was it perfect? No. Could we have been more creative and caused more pressure on the offense? Yes. But overall it was still really good. Our opponents have often said so and I agree; our D is feared. I also agree with Oak that our tackling in space was greatly improved.

There is no reason for our D not to be excellent this year too; the talent and experience are there. Our new coaches will logically want to tweak and improve some aspects, but the basic schemes are good and the talent is too.

Will be interesting watching your changes over next two three years w new coaches. Your D was outstanding this year! Quick question - so in addition to Ayers... Raise, Gasparato, Nash and Sheil Wood are at other schools now? Did I leave anyone out? Thanks. So many moving parts I haven't kept up